Pillars Of Eternity's Next Patch Can Be Tested Right Now

PC role-playing game Pillars of Eternity is due to receive a major patch in the coming days. However, you can download and try out the update right now.

Obsidian Entertainment announced on their forum that they're going to release beta versions of each patch through Steam. This allows players to get updates faster while also giving developers some extra eyes on these patches before they're officially released.

"These patches may be unstable," said producer Brandon Adler. "We will be doing work on the patches and they haven't gone through a full QA cycle so unexpected things can happen. To be safe, I would avoid using any saved games that you do not want to get corrupted. If you do want to use those saved games, it is at your own risk."

To access beta patches, restart Steam and go to your Library. Right-click Pillars of Eternity and Properties. In the Betas tab of the Properties menu, enter the code "BETAPASSWORD" (without quotes) and click the Check Code button. Select "beta" in the drop-down menu and close the Properties menu.

Patch 1.04 includes dozens of bug fixes across several areas of the game. These glitches include blocked progress in a companion quest and unexpected price hikes by merchants. A couple Achievements from the game should be unlocked properly as well. There's nothing as major as that double-click inventory bug finally fixed in last patch. Nonetheless, there are a lot of welcome fixes here. Check out the full patch notes below:

Items, Spells, and Abilities

AoE indicators should now properly resize if the caster has a sub 10 Intellect score.

Fixed an issue with over-time aura spells not applying the correct value on the final tick.

Knock Down will now correctly be applied for the full duration of the effect.

Mantle of The Dying Boar will now trigger at 33% Endurance with the effect of 5 Endurance a tick.

Talisman of the Unconquerable will now give a 1.25 Focus multiplier instead of .25.

Blooded should trigger properly in all cases now.

Boar Animal Companion bonus damage should now work as intended.

Prone Reduction mod should now work correctly.

Quests and Companions

Fixed Aloth and Kana speaking when they weren't in the party in one of the last levels.

Sagani's fox-specific banters now require the appropriate items in the player inventory.

Falanroed's dialogue no longer displays a script node.

Durance will now properly discuss your dream with you if you've already discussed his staff.

Relaxed some constraints on Durance's quest conversation. This allows all characters, regardless of background or stats, to finish his quest.

Players can now loot the nest in Oldsong.

Fixed an invalid conditional check in one of Pallegina's conversations.

Heritage Hill tower will be fully revealed when exploring the map.

Fixed spawn issue in a scripted interaction near the end of the game.

Fixed an invalid creature spawn in the Ogre Lair in Od Nua.

Sagani no longer references the antagonist by name before you know it.

A container in the Catacombs of Od Nua will now remember if it was looted.

The "Master's Tools" quest will now work if you have the required items before starting the quest.

The "A Two Story Job" scripted interaction will not require a second grappling hook to climb down from the window if one was already used to climb up.

General Fixes

Fix for camera movement problems when the game is paused or in a cutscene.

Fix to retroactively restore party movement in saves that display movement speed problems.

Made some fixes to movement speed problems that were being reported (e.g. Boots of Speed).

Optimized Save/Load game system for better performance.

Optimized how scene transitions are handled for better memory usage on 32-bit machines. This may allow players to transition to new areas without running out of memory.

Sound Sets from hired companions will now be properly restored when adding them to the party from the stronghold.

"All Stronghold Upgrades" achievement now checks 25 upgrades instead of 26. This will properly reward the achievement if you already have fully upgraded your stronghold.

The "Kill All Dragons" achievement will now properly fire if they are killed indirectly (like by a trap). This is a retroactive fix and will be rewarded if the dragons are already dead.

Fixed issue where store prices were getting exceptionally large after receiving a discount.

Fixed issues with gaining infinite XP from bad Stronghold data.

World time will not get very large in some cases after Save/Load.

Modelling offset with Durance's head has been adjusted.

Icon scale is now correct on Hearth Harvest and Reghar Konnek.

All shaders will now compile properly under DirectX 11.

Restored all the missing effects in the intro cutscene.

Removed Blunderbuss item from an early game loot table.

Changed the cursor type on the blood pool in the Temple of Skaen to conversation.

Fixed a few save game issues with dead summoned creatures.

Fixed issue where occasionally a crash would occur when initializing the Steam API.

Draggable windows are now handled properly when running at very high resolutions.

Swamp Lurker's animation won't spaz anymore when the game is paused.

Fixed an issue to prevent binding mouse buttons to window controls.

Game will now pause if you Alt-Tab during a cutscene in full screen mode.

Audio will now resume properly if the game loses focus.

Fixed an issue with infinite load screen if you transition while hovering over a container.

Characters will now wait for their idle animation before trying to reload which fixes an animation sync issue.

Damaged characters performing AoE attacks will not overload their AI state stacks anymore.